Pain relief in hospitals?

[Lesssaideasymended]

n hospital should you receive pain relief when it’s scheduled for, or only when you ask for it?

I was in hospital all weekend after having an accident. Was in the trauma ward and had to have surgery to repair the damage.
The surgery was brutal and much more painful than the accident itself.

However I found I wasn’t given pain relief on a schedule and only when I asked ...and then they had a whole procedure to follow which took ages. Should it not have been like every 6 hours she gets A and every 3 hours she gets B (can’t remember what I was on, morphine And something else ). That’s how I cope at home and I’m only on basic pain relief now and it works fine.

Where as in the hospital I was left in so much pain that I was sick & shaking. It took them 1 hour and 45mins to give me paracetamol on the day I left and I was crippled with the pain. The doctors kept saying to keep taking pain relief to keep on top of it but they wouldn’t give it in time 🤦🏼‍♀️ you’d think on the trauma ward they’d be more adept at this sort of thing or AIBU?

YANBU.
DH had to go and ask the nurse for pain meds for me when he came to visit after my hysterectomy because he could see I was in agony. They had said, nearly 2 hours earlier, that they would bring me pain meds soon then I never saw them again!

I hope you are in less pain now, wishing you a speedy recovery

It depends, dd just had surgery and when she was initially back from theatre she was on a syringe driver with oral painkillers as a top up and the nurses made sure she was well covered but by day 5 she’d been moved to a bay ward and I had to keep asking for painkillers.
Luckily she came home the next day and I was able to make sure she wasn’t in pain.

The best thing about having surgery in a private hospital was getting enough pain relief and them getting different things when it didn't work. NHS pain relief was never enough and grudging, and when I had absolutely excruciating pain (blacking out, screaming) I was left like it for hours - and as it turned out had life changing injury as a result as they didn't investigate why it was so bad

It depends on what’s prescribed. If it’s prescribed “as required” you need to ask for it.

When I was in hospital for surgery you could request pain relief as required, however when I had been in for a few days you could have it changed to a schedule instead.

I’ve had two c sections and after the first 4 years ago they gave me it regularly and it kept on top of the pain without being too much while with my second recent one I had to ask and at one point had to wait an hour crying in pain. When I went home I took regular paracetamol and ibroprufen and managed my pain better than they did in hospital. It was almost an approach of recovering better the less painkillers I took but in reality I couldn’t get moving like they wanted me to with so little pain relief.

When I had a hysterectomy when I was 36, after the OP I was put on a morphine drip that I could regulate myself whenever I felt the need. It was just a very light touch of my thumb as I lay in bed and very carefully and precisely dosed and monitored.
There was no possibilty of too much or an overdose. It was a godsend, I could get good sleep, wore when the pain was strong, pressed my thumb on the button, and then back to sleep.
I had felt increasingly unwell for three years before the OP and within 24 hours I just felt reborn.

It entirely depends how the doctors prescribe dit. It can either be PRN which is patient requested or scheduled where its at regular intervals.
However after asking for PRN painkillers I'm surprised it wasn't highlighted you should be on regular following surgery

Depends if pain relief is prescribed regularly or as needed. Normally its prescribed regularly and option for as needed pain relief too post op. Drug rounds are usually 0800/1200/1800/2200.

I recently gave birth. Pain relief was withheld by midwives throughout labour and birth. I was begging for something. Because of Covid restrictions I had no partner with me. I'm traumatised frankly and not doing too great.

YANBU

YANBU. DH has had 3 major abdominal surgeries over the past 15 years, the second time they left him overnight for several hours on 2 paracetamol. By the time the consultant came around the next morning he was curled in the foetal position with large amounts of fluid on his lungs as he was in too much pain to cough. He was on a morphine drip within minutes and advised in future to insist on pain management team being paged as soon as he was awake.

I was in hospital last year with a traumatic nasal procedure. Admitted late evening and was only prescribed paracetamol. It didn't even start to touch the pain. I was told I couldn't have anything stronger until I'd seen the doctor in the morning.

No sleep, weeping with pain. Awful experience.

I'm supporting an elderly man through end of life in hospital. He has severe learning disabilities and is non verbal. Treatment has been fine but pain relief has been so poor, the attitude towards managing pain and discomfort is blasé at best. I've ended up practically staging a reception desk sit in (on) to force staff to actually bring the promised pain relief two days after it was promised. Awful.

I'm disabled and on very strong painkillers every day. Despite my consultant insisting that they gave me something stronger than my every day usage to cope with the pain post c-section, after my twins were born, I was only allowed dosages less than what I took regularly to cope with day to day pain, meaning I was effectively without anything to tackle the escalation of post operative pain. It took a lot of advocating for myself to get the pain anywhere near managed and as a result, I was in hospital and taking up a bed probably for far longer than I would have been had they upped the medication and managed pain levels appropriately. I spent four days in there, the majority of them weeping with pain. It was dreadful.

My family have all experienced a fight to get regular meds in hospital. Our ‘good old NHS’ eh The sooner we put it out of its misery the better. One thing I would never give up is my private healthcare. You never have to wait for meds there.

The problem is the staff are just so busy they can’t keep on top of it. During my last hospital stay I was practically in tears asking nurses to bring my scheduled pain relief and repeatedly told they would bring it for them to be distracted by something more urgent.

Not my experience with DD.

She had surgery before Christmas, day case. She had calpol in Recovery according to her letter, then 4 hours later she was given more. After that every 3 hours or so the Nurse would come round and ask if she was in pain and she was given calpol within an hour of saying she was (so 4 hours after last dose).

On the last day when she said she wasn't in pain the Nurses checked regularly with her.

YANBU. After surgery I was given a morphine clicker where I could self administer morphine. It had a limit so you could not overdose.

Prior to surgery I had a procedure with local anaesthetic. I don't know what happened but after I had tremendous pain like I was hit by a bus. I think it was nerve endings. Anyway I was clicking the call button and no one was coming. This went on for about 20-30 minutes. I was outside my own control and moaning and distressing other families on the ward visiting patients who eventually turned to me in sympathy to say someone is coming. It got worse to the point where I was crying and screaming off the bed in pain. The nurses heard me down the corridor, I think they were coming back from a break, and came with a cocktail of painkillers thankfully. I was told by nurses that it is easier to stay on top / ahead of the pain, rather than taking something once it has already got too bad, and that experience definitely vouches for it. I do think when you don't have much else control over what is going on that not being in pain is important.

Just remembered the day of surgery when I had to wait until 6pm with no pain relief.

In all honesty those memories were a contributor to the PTSD I had after. Physical injury IS a form of trauma so managing the pain helps reduce the trauma.

I've had quite a lot of hospital admissions and it's usually been a mixture of both regular and as required pain relief. Most recently I had long acting oxycodone morning and night, regular paracetamol 4 times a day, naproxen twice a day and then I could have short acting oxycodone in between if needed. I did have to ask for that, though whenever the nurses came in to do something else they almost always asked if I needed anything whilst they were there. That was on a Trauma ward and they were excellent.
I've also had terrible experiences including an entire night spent in A&E with no pain relief, but that's a whole other story. As soon as I got moved to a ward they called the Pain Nurse who I would have hugged if I could have moved and she got everything sorted. I've had wildly different experiences on different wards in the same hospital so I imagine there's even more variation across the country. There shouldn't be though.
Unmumsnetty hugs to all who have had bad experiences.

Op you have my sympathies.
It's a disgrace.

Sorry should say not a day case, we were in a few days

Yanbu hospitals are a disgrace. When i was in with a severe hemmoridge and mc i was in for 2 days and no one changed my drip and i wasnt given any pain relief in the 2 days i was there. I also asked to speak to a dr and got one 8 hours after asking. I was also never discharged i was told they were too busy so i walked out. Sorry you were left in pain, hope its somewhat better now.

@MrsAvocet

I've had quite a lot of hospital admissions and it's usually been a mixture of both regular and as required pain relief. Most recently I had long acting oxycodone morning and night, regular paracetamol 4 times a day, naproxen twice a day and then I could have short acting oxycodone in between if needed. I did have to ask for that, though whenever the nurses came in to do something else they almost always asked if I needed anything whilst they were there. That was on a Trauma ward and they were excellent. I've also had terrible experiences including an entire night spent in A&E with no pain relief, but that's a whole other story. As soon as I got moved to a ward they called the Pain Nurse who I would have hugged if I could have moved and she got everything sorted. I've had wildly different experiences on different wards in the same hospital so I imagine there's even more variation across the country. There shouldn't be though. Unmumsnetty hugs to all who have had bad experiences.

This is our experience as well. If you need to attend a and e for a chronic condition take your own painkillers. Wait can be 8-10 hours at our failing a and e and you get no help no painkillers and sit on a tiny bolt upright metal chair. They don’t assess you properly. DD2 Discharged once as ok with a undiagnosed triple pelvic fracture, also refused a wheelchair as “looked ok” Had to beg GP for painkillers the next day. I was discharged once with severed ribs with no painkillers and also had to beg GP for them the next day. Dd2 CEV also admitted with covid complications recently and ended up lying on the floor until they gave her a bed they were “keeping free” (again looks young so clearly ok) she was in 5 days !. Watford hospital is so not fit for purpose I could write a book on it.

Depends on the doctor who wrote up your meds chart. If he put you on morphine every 4 hours they wouldn’t necessarily give it to you 4 hourly unless you asked or seemed in pain (they wouldn’t wake you for it or offer it if your obs were normal etc). Sometimes doctors write up PRN which is a certain medication on request of the patient or if the patient seems in pain.

It sounds like they didn’t manage your pain properly. Possibly couldn’t get hold of a doctor or were short staffed or someone forgot to write up your meds chart!

I’ve had different experiences in different hospitals; once after surgery I was in agony and they’d only give IV paracetamol as doctor was busy.

Another hospital they offered me sub-cut morphine on a schedule, pre-surgery.